Issues

• Cultural Protection. Protect Monroe County from becoming "Anyplace, USA."
  • Preserve the traditional forms of our built environment through historic re-use and investment.
  • Provide appropriate infrastructure, such as affordable roads -- not just big roads.
  • Preserve our quality of place and pride in our community.
  • Provide alternatives to taxpayer-funded suburban sprawl (no more "greenfield" Tax Increment Finance districts)

• Congestion Protection.
  • Provide incentives for those who work in Monroe County, to live in Monroe County
  • Preserve through disincentives to those who work, and shop, in Monroe County but who do not live, and pay taxes, here.
  • Provide mixed-use development and land-use policies.

• Quality of life Protection.
  • Provide, by always asking: "Will this improve the lives of all Monroe County residents?"
  • Preserve, by presuming in favor of the existing residents, not the growth presumption.

• Environmental Protection.
  • Provide citizens with proactive leadership. Re-visit, re-work, and possibly re-ject the PCB consent decree.
  • Preserve our greenspaces and our rural communities and our watersheds.

• Economic Protection.
  • Provide the appropriate emphasis. Realize that Monroe County's greatest economic development asset is its character. Provide an environment, natural, economic, and market that both attracts and retains our most creative citizens and the businesses they have, and will, build.
  • Protect. Remain firmly and vocally opposed to the "new terrain" I-69 taxpayer boondoggle. Recognize the potential to harm, not help, Monroe County's economy
  • Provide for a vibrant cultural sector.
  • Protect those most vulnerable.

The business of Government is to protect citizens from harm. Harm includes not only harm from crime, but also economic harm, environmental harm, and quality of life harm. As Commissioner, I will recognize that harm to Monroe County's citizens comes in many forms and that my job is to make the best decisions possible to minimize, or eliminate, harm to county residents.

That means ensuring diverse and equitable representation on boards and commissions. It means casting a wary eye towards those who advocate growth-for-growth's sake, the ideology of the cancer cell. It means always considering the quality of life of Monroe County's residents, and how decisions made by the County Executive affect that quality of life.